Postpositions vs Prepositions in Mandarin Chinese: The Articulation of Disharmony*

location: (18) [PostP Yuánzé shàng] nı̌men kěyı̌ zhèyàng zuò. principle on 2pl can this.way do ‘In principle you can do it this way.’ (Ernst 1988: 229, (19)) (19) [PreP Zài zhè fāngmiàn] nı̌ yào duō bāngzhù tā. at this respect 2sg need much help 3sg ‘In this respect, you have to help him more.’ In the preverbal position to the right of the subject, temporal, or abstract location (including abstract means) can be denoted by PostPs (20a–c) or PrepPs (21a–b): (20) a. Tā [PostP [jı̌ -ge yuè ] yı̌qián ] jiù qù Shànghǎi le. 3sg several-cl month before then go Shanghai part ‘He went to Shanghai several months ago.’ b. Tā [PostP [jīn -nián nián-chū ] yı̌lái] yı̌jīng chū -le 3sg this-year year-beginning since already go.out-perf sān-cì chāi. 3 -time errand ‘He has already been on business trips three times since the beginning of this year.’ c. Nı̌men [PostP yuánzé shàng] kěyı̌ zhèyàng zuò. 2pl principle on can this.way do ‘You can in principle do it this way.’ (21) a. Wèntí [PreP zài nà ge shíhòu ] hái bù yánzhòng. problem at that cl time still neg serious ‘The problem was not that serious yet at that time.’ b. Nı̌ [PreP zài zhè fàngmiàn] yào duō bāngzhù tā. 2sg at this respect need much help 3sg ‘In this respect, you have to help him more.’ However spatial PostPs in this position are limited to a goal or directed motion interpretation: (22) a. Nı̌ [PostP wòshì lı̌ ] bù néng fàng diànlú. 2sg bedroom in(side) neg can put electric.stove ‘You cannot put an electric stove in the bedroom.’ b. Lái, wǒmen [PostP fànzhuō shàng] liáo. come 1pl dining.table on chat ‘Come, let’s chat at the table.’ Thus non-path, locational PPs in this position require the preposition zài ‘in, at’: OUP UNCORRECTED PROOF – FIRST PROOF, 20/5/2013, SPi Postpositions vs Prepositions in Mandarin Chinese 81 Comp. by: PG2846 Stage : Proof ChapterID: 0001998076 Date:20/5/13 Time:17:16:11 Filepath:d:/womat-filecopy/0001998076.3D82 (23) Tā [PreP zài zhuōzi xià ] / *[PostP zhuōzi xià] kàndào-le yī-zhī lǎoshǔ. 3sg at table under table under see -perf 1-cl mouse ‘He saw a mouse under the table.’ Huang, Li, and Li (2009:13–14) notice the unacceptability of certain PostPs in the position between the subject and the verb and use this as an argument against analyzing PostPs as adpositions. Instead, they set up a special category L(ocalizer), ‘a deviate of N’ (2009: 21). Citing the data in (24), they argue, ‘If L[ocalizer] were a postposition, there would be no reason why it should not behave like one, and its presence in (11b) [= (24b)] would be enough to introduce the nominal chéng ‘city’ just like outside does in English.’ (24) a. Tā *(zài) nàge chéngshì jǔbàn-guo yī-ge zhǎnlǎnhuì. he P that city hold -guo a cl exhibition ‘He held an exhibition *(in) that city.’ b. Tā *(zài) chéng wài /lı̌ jǔbàn-guo yī-ge zhǎnlǎnhuì. he P city outside/ inside hold -guo a cl exhibition ‘He held an exhibition outside/inside the city.’ (= Huang, Li, and Li’s (2009: 13) (11a–b); their glosses and translation) However the Localizer analysis is too crude to capture the complete distribution, since as we saw in (22) PostPs may indeed appear in the position between the subject and the verb, under an appropriate interpretation. We account for this fact in section 3.3. 3.2.2.2 Argument PPs In postverbal position, PrePs, Circumpositional Phrases and PostPs all occur. (25) a. Tā jì -le [DP yī-ge diànnǎo ] [Prep gěi Mǎlì]. 3sg send-perf 1 -cl computer to Mary ‘He sent a computer to Mary.’ 4 In fact, chéngwài ‘suburbs, city outskirts’ and chénglı̌ ‘inner city, center city’ are compound nouns (that is, Ns), not phrases (cf. Lü Shuxiang et al. 2000: 360 for more N-lı̌ compounds). This is shown by the fact that they can be embedded in larger compounds, e.g. chénglı̌rén ‘city inhabitant’. Furthermore, being a bound morpheme, chéngcannot occur on its own, e.g. as a modifier subordinated to the head noun by de, in contrast to chénglı̌: (i) Hé zài [N chénglı̌] de nánfāng. river be.in city.interior sub south ‘The river is to the south of the (inner) city.’ (i) *Hé zài chéng de nánfāng. river be.at city sub south 5 Y-H Audrey Li (1990: 4) takes the possibility of PostPs to function as complements (27–28) as evidence for the nominal status of postpositions, because in her approach adpositional phrases are banned from case positions. This forces her to analyse the phrases headed by gěi, dào, and zài in contexts like (25)–(26) as VPs instead of as PrePs notwithstanding their nonverbal properties, such as incompatibility with aspectual suffixes such as -le perfective and -guo experiental. OUP UNCORRECTED PROOF – FIRST PROOF, 20/5/2013, SPi 82 Redouane Djamouri, Waltraud Paul, and John Whitman Comp. by: PG2846 Stage : Proof ChapterID: 0001998076 Date:20/5/13 Time:17:16:12 Filepath:d:/womat-filecopy/0001998076.3D83 b. Wǒ yı̌jīng dǎ -guo diànhuà [Prep dào [DP tā jiā]]. 1sg already make-exp phone to 3sg home ‘I already phoned his home.’ (26) Tā xiě -le [DP jı̌ -ge zì ] [PreP zài hēibǎn shàng]. 3sg write-perf several-cl character at blackboard on ‘He wrote several characters on the blackboard.’ (27) a. Tā [V zuò-dào ]-le [PostP yı̌zi shàng] yı̌hòu, yı̌zi jiù kuàdiào-le. 3sg sit -arrive-perf chair on after chair then collapse-perf ‘After he sat down on the chair, the chair collapsed.’ b. Tā -de gùshi [V dēng -zài ] -le [PostP bàozhı̌ shàng]. 3sg-sub story publish-be.at -perf paper on ‘His story got published in the newspaper.’ (28) Tā [V zǒu -jìn ]-le [PostP jiàoshì lı̌]. 3sg walk-enter-perf classroom in(side) ‘He entered the classroom.’ As the position of the perfective aspect suffix -le indicates, in (27a) and (b) the verbs dào and zài—homophonous with the prepositions dào and zài—are part of the verbal compound. Accordingly, (27a–b) indeed involve PostPs in object position, and not PrePs. Unlike VP-internal complement position, subject position allows us to distinguish between PostPs and PrePs on the one hand, and between PostPs and DPs on the other. PostPs occur in the subject position of locative inversion sentences like (29a), existential yǒu ‘exist’ (29b), and copular shì with an adverb of quantification (29c). (29) a. [PostP Chēzi shàng] pā-zhe yī-zhī māo. car on lie-dur 1-cl cat ‘On the car is lying a cat.’ b. [PostP Wūzi lı̌ ] yǒu hěn duō rén. room in(side) have very much people ‘There are many people in the room.’ c. [PostP Shān -pō shàng] quán shì lìzishù. mountain-slope on all be chestnut.tree ‘All over the mountain slope there are chestnut trees.’ 6 Existential yǒu ‘exist, there is’ as an unaccusative verb is distinct from the transitive verb yǒu ‘have, possess’: (i) Tā yǒu sān-liàng qìchē 3sg have 3 -cl car ‘He has three cars.’ OUP UNCORRECTED PROOF – FIRST PROOF, 20/5/2013, SPi Postpositions vs Prepositions in Mandarin Chinese 83 Comp. by: PG2846 Stage : Proof ChapterID: 0001998076 Date:20/5/13 Time:17:16:13 Filepath:d:/womat-filecopy/0001998076.3D84 Simple DP subjects are unacceptable in these positions: (30) a. *[DP Wūzi] yǒu hěn duō rén. room have very much people b. *[DP Chēzi] pā-zhe yī-zhī māo]. car lie-dur 1 -cl cat c. *[DP Shān -pō ] quán shì lìzishù. mountain-slope all be chestnut.tree At the same time, certain of these contexts distinguish between PostPs and PrePs. In the locative inversion context (29a), the locative preposition zài ‘at’ is unacceptable: (31) *[PreP Zài chēzi shàng] pā-zhe yī-zhī māo. at car on lie-dur 1-cl cat Similarly, while PostPs are acceptable as subjects of adjectival predicates, PrePs are disallowed in this position: (32) a. [(*Zài) wūzi lı̌ ] hěn gānjìng. at room in(side) very clean ‘It is very clean in the room.’ b. [(*Zài) lúzi qián ] hěn nuǎnhuo at stove in.front.of very warm ‘It is very warm in front of the stove.’ The copula shì enables us to distinguish between DPs, PostPs, and PrePs. DP subjects are of course completely acceptable; PostPs are of marginal or variable acceptability, depending on the speaker, while PrePs are completely unacceptable: (33) a. [DP Bìlú] shì jiāli zuì nuǎnhuo de dìfāng. fire.place be home most warm sub place ‘The fire place is the warmest place in our home.’ 7 There is an alternative parsing of (32b) available for some speakers leading to its acceptability [TopP [Zài lúzi qián] [TP pro hěn nuǎnhuo]] ‘In front of the stove, it is warm.’ When embedded in a relative, however, the zài PP cannot be construed as occupying topic position, and the sentence is ungrammatical: (i) [DP [(*Zài) lúzi qián ] hěn nuǎnhuo de nà-jiān fáng] shì kètīng at stove in.front.of very warm sub that cl room be living.room ‘The room where it is very warm in front of the stove is the living room.’ OUP UNCORRECTED PROOF – FIRST PROOF, 20/5/2013, SPi 84 Redouane Djamouri, Waltraud Paul, and John Whitman Comp. by: PG2846 Stage : Proof ChapterID: 0001998076 Date:20/5/13 Time:17:16:15 Filepath:d:/womat-filecopy/0001998076.3D85 b. ?/√[PostP Lúzi qián] shì zuì nuǎnhuo de dìfāng. stove in.front.of be most warm sub place ‘In front of the stove is the warmest place.’ c. *[PreP Zai lúzi qián] shì zuì nuǎnhuo de dìfāng. at stove in.front.of be most warm sub place (‘In front of the stove is the warmest place.’) Summarizing, both PrePs and PostPs may appear in complement position after the verb. PostPs may occur as the subjects of locative inversion, adjectival, and marginally of copular predicates, whereas PrePs are disallowed in these positions. 3.2.2.3 PPs as subconstituents of DP Both PrepP and PostP can be embedded in DP followed by de, but in the case of PrePs, this possibility is limited to DPs with relational head nouns. Examples such as (34) show that Li Y.-H. Audrey’s (1990: 5) general ban on *[PP de N] is too strong. (34) a. [PreP guānyú Chomsky] de kànfǎ concerning Chomsky sub opinion ‘the opinions about Chomsky’ b. [PreP duì Lı̌ xiānshēng] de tàidu towards Li Mr. sub attitude ‘the attitude towards Mr. Li’ (35) a. *[PreP duì Lı̌ xiānshēng] de huà towards Li Mr. sub talk (‘the words addressed to Mr. Li’) b. *[PreP cóng Běijīng] de rén from Beijing sub pers